Zutphen without
greaves, threw off his own, and thus exposed himself to the cannon-shot
which slew him. (2) Being mortally wounded, and receiving a cup of
water, he handed it (according to a tradition which is not
unquestionable) to a dying soldier. (3) His series of sonnets record his
love for Penelope Devereux, sister to the Earl of Essex, who married
Lord Rich. She had at one time been promised to Sidney. He wrote the
sonnets towards 1581: in 1583 he married another lady, daughter of Sir
Francis Walsingham. It has been said that Shelley was wont to make some
self-parade in connexion with Sir Philip Sidney, giving it to be
understood that he was himself a descendant of the hero--which was not
true, although the Sidney blood came into a different line of the
family. Of this story I have not found any tangible confirmation.

1. 8. _Lucan, by his death approved._ Lucan, the author of the
_Pharsalia_, was condemned under Nero as being an accomplice in the
conspiracy of Piso: he caused his veins to be opened, and died
magnanimously, aged about twenty-six, A.D. 65. Shelley, in one instance,
went so far as to pronounce Lucan superior to Vergil.

+Stanza 46,+ 11. 1, 2. _And many more, whose names on earth are dark,
But whose transmitted effluence cannot die_, &c. This glorious company
would include no doubt, not only the recorders of great thoughts, or
performers of great deeds, which are still borne in memory although the
names of the authors are forgotten, but also many whose work is as
totally unknown as their names, but who exerted nevertheless a bright
and elevating ascendant over other minds, and who thus conduced to the
greatness of human-kind.

1. 6. _It was for thee_, &c. The synod of the inheritors of unfulfilled
renown here invite Keats to assume possession of a sphere, or
constellation, which had hitherto been 'kingless,' or unappropriated. It
had 'swung blind in unascended majesty': had not been assigned to any
radiant spirit, whose brightness would impart brilliancy to the sphere
itself.

1. 8. _Silent alone amid an heaven of song._ This phrase points
primarily to 'the music of the spheres': the sphere now assigned to
Keats had hitherto failed to take part in the music of its fellows, but
henceforward will chime in. Probably there is also a subsidiary, but in
its context not less prominent meaning--namely, that, while the several
poets (such as Chatterton, Sidney, and Lucan) had each a vocal sphere of
his o